36 replies to this topic

[schia]

Been meaning to transition from physical media to digital media recently.  I think I'm starting to feel the limitations of pencil and paper and I'm feeling that its hindering my growth mostly due to drawing space. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what model of drawing tablet for entry level users to go for and which program is user friendly.

 

Wanting maybe 6 to 8 inches of drawing surface.  Price isn't too much of an issue as long as its reasonable.

[kucingila]

I swear there was a guide thread pinned here before Oh found it..

 

Intuos ($99-$500s) if you have money, or Huion ($70s) is as good as intuos but cheaper. Though, Intuos might be easier when it comes to spare parts.

I've been using Genius for five years, it's pretty decent and cheap. The spare parts is expensive though, better buy a brand new one instead.

 

As for art program, I don't use many programs.

 

Photoshop is the industry standard. Easy to find Tutorials and custom brushes/pattern. but it can be ram eater and really pricey (CS6 is $700, while CS6Ex is $1000). Photoshop CS1 and 2 are available for free on their website though. Even if you use something else, it's not hurt to have at least the free versions. I use PS for finishing and effects, since my computer isn't strong enough to handle more than 10 layers on Photoshop.

 

Clip Studio Paint is the Japanese Photoshop except optimized for manga/comic than photo editing. It's an evolved version of Manga Studio. It has everything MS has and with more features and materials (like template or brushes). The only downside is, most tutorials aren't available in English language and involve combing around pixiv (although, if you know which tags to use, they're really easy to find). It has two versions Pro ($50) and Ex ($220). Pro works fine even on advanced level. Haven't used this all that much.

 

Paint Tool Sai, the thing that most weaboo use. *cough* joke aside, Compared to the program above Sai has very limited feature and simple as it's mainly for painting (It has most basic features for painting). It's good if you have not-so-strong-PC, like simple UI and smooth brush. If you buy sai, you can update to its 2nd version (still BETA), it has more features like text, shape tools, perspective grid). I mainly use Sai for because it's lightweightness (my -_-ty computer can handle 250 layers in 300dpi A4 in sai, while barely able to handle 10 in Photoshop), simple UI and cheaper (around $45). Another downside is it can't open non-RGB files.

 

Another note: Both Sai and CPS has stabilizer so you don't have to worry about shaky hands.

[ceinchase]

Share some! I didn't know you were an artsy type.

[Havenn]

Illustrator and this

[schia]

Share some! I didn't know you were an artsy type.

You've seen some before a long while back.  It should be no surprise to you that people do not associate their forum accounts with their in-game accounts.

 

Illustrator and this

hmmm 800 hours of battery life on the pen seems reasonable.  Any idea on what the pen weight is?  I might go with that, seems like the best value i've seen so far for the total drawing surface it provides.

[ZeroTigress]

I can't draw very well on art tablets because of the disconnection between my hand and the actual art, so I'm getting this baby.

[kucingila]

I can't draw very well on art tablets because of the disconnection between my hand and the actual art, so I'm getting this baby.

 

Whoa, color me jealous I want that but no money or space.

I felt like that when I first have my tablet. It usually took sometime to get used with the tablet (around 2 weeks to 3 months),

 

Al little tip: If you find the tablet surface a bit too smooth and slippery, you can put a piece of paper on top of your tablet surface (assuming you're not going for monitor type like Zero's).

[ceinchase]

You've seen some before a long while back.  It should be no surprise to you that people do not associate their forum accounts with their in-game accounts.

 

It wasn't a jab. It was sincere.

 

Frankly, I don't remember. :X

[schia]

people have told me that the disconnect between the screen and the tablet is easy to get use to.  I would assume that it'd be similar between the disconnect between the mouse and your monitor. 

 

Not willing to drop like $450 on a tablet with a monitor, think best use of my money would be to buy a non video screen tablet, a proper art program, and possibly additional ram.  Seems like art programs are ram hogs and i'm guessing its safe to assume that 12 gb of ram is not enough.

 

I'm leaning towards the h610 pro havenn linked, and filling out the rest of my ram slots with another 12gb.

 

I'm looking at paint tool Sai right now and so far i'm liking it.  What are people's recommendation for programs that emulate physical media?  I'm leaning more towards watercolor effects.

[rodezja]

It's been a while since I've gotten my first tablet, but back in those days, anything not made by Wacom was simply bad. I don't want to advise you against that Huion, but I would highly suggest going to a store & testing them both out before actually ordering one.

 

There also other series of tablets by Wacom, Intuos are rather targeted at pros. Personally I've had 2 Bamboos, they are cheaper, and if you're not a proffessional artist, then just as good. The first Bamboo I had still works to this day and I've had it for at least 6 years now, so they are quite lively as well

Edited by rodezja, 20 November 2015 - 05:54 PM.

[Mikael31]

I have Wacom Intuos Pen & Touch Medium (you can also encounter its twin, Intuos Manga, they have the same physical looks they only differ on the downloadable free software you can get) and I got it for around $250 (I live in ph). For softwares, I installed Manga Studio 5 and Photoshop CC. I am only trying to learh Illustrator, because AFAIK it's not a pixel based program.

 

 

[kucingila]

people have told me that the disconnect between the screen and the tablet is easy to get use to.  I would assume that it'd be similar between the disconnect between the mouse and your monitor. 

 

Not willing to drop like $450 on a tablet with a monitor, think best use of my money would be to buy a non video screen tablet, a proper art program, and possibly additional ram.  Seems like art programs are ram hogs and i'm guessing its safe to assume that 12 gb of ram is not enough.

 

I'm leaning towards the h610 pro havenn linked, and filling out the rest of my ram slots with another 12gb.

 

I'm looking at paint tool Sai right now and so far i'm liking it.  What are people's recommendation for programs that emulate physical media?  I'm leaning more towards watercolor effects.

 

If you're used with mouse, yeah you can get used more quickly.

 

12gb is more than enough unless you want to do 3D. AFAIK Sai can only use maximum 4gb in 64bit (2gb in 32bit). I only have 1gb of ram, and it worked perfectly fine (I'm working in 300dpi).

 

There are few tutorials on how to make watercolor effects in sai like this one

 

@Rodezja

unfortunately, Wacom discontinued Bamboo few years ago. There's wacom intuos manga, but it's small and more pricey than the huion one linked above.

[schia]

It's been a while since I've gotten my first tablet, but back in those days, anything not made by Wacom was simply bad. I don't want to advise you against that Huion, but I would highly suggest going to a store & testing them both out before actually ordering one.

 

There also other series of tablets by Wacom, Intuos are rather targeted at pros. Personally I've had 2 Bamboos, they are cheaper, and if you're not a proffessional artist, then just as good. The first Bamboo I had still works to this day and I've had it for at least 6 years now, so they are quite lively as well

 

my goal is to get a large enough drawing surface that i can feel comfortable with.  I was looking at the wacom models and the price range of huion for its surface area seems slightly better wacom models all seem to be about 20 to 30% more expensive per inch.   I'm looking for a light investment to see if I actually enjoy digital media first before fully committing to a better quality model.  If I end up not liking digital media then oh well no big deal because I didn't fully commit to it.

 

 

 

Been playing with fire alpalca right now and so far i'm enjoying a lot of its features.  Considering that its free, I think i'll stick with that until i finalize my decision on if I enjoy digital media or not.

[barachan]

just FYI huion's pens are very stiff and their drivers are rudimentary, they do have some nice features but overall they feel very cheap compared to wacom ): i had the h610 pro, was hoping to replace my old wacom intuos3 with it...i ended up giving it away because of the way it made my hand ache and went back to my intuos. one of my friends/coworkers had a huion (i think? maybe it was yiynova) tablet monitor, and it was giving her serious hand/wrist issues as well

 

corel painter is awesome at mimicking real media, photoshop does alright if you dl some of the extra brushes/tools that are out there. kyle's watercolor brushes are pretty good!

btw photoshop is only $10/mo now instead of $1k upfront, and you can try it for 30 days free

[schia]

thats 3 separate people that suggest wacom over huion.  Are the quality of the huion tablets that bad?

[ZeroTigress]

Whoa, color me jealous I want that but no money or space.
I felt like that when I first have my tablet. It usually took sometime to get used with the tablet (around 2 weeks to 3 months),

I'm waiting for a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal to lower the price to hopefully around $350-$400. Still considerably more affordable than Wacom's Cintiq plus it comes with a bunch of extra stuff in the bundle that I haven't seen offered with Cintiqs. It'll be my very first monitor tablet so as long as it works decently, that's good enough for me.
 

people have told me that the disconnect between the screen and the tablet is easy to get use to.  I would assume that it'd be similar between the disconnect between the mouse and your monitor.

A mouse is nowhere near similar to a tablet and pen. The difficulty in getting used to the disconnection varies from person to person. I used a Wacom Bamboo while taking graphic arts in high school and my uncle got me a generic tablet that I used for maybe a year. I got somewhat used to the disconnect, but still preferred to draw on paper and scan it in when given the choice.

[schia]

 

A mouse is nowhere near similar to a tablet and pen. The difficulty in getting used to the disconnection varies from person to person. I used a Wacom Bamboo while taking graphic arts in high school and my uncle got me a generic tablet that I used for maybe a year. I got somewhat used to the disconnect, but still preferred to draw on paper and scan it in when given the choice.

 

that was sort of my plan.  Do a good sketch then scan it then use the tablet touch it up.  Scaling up the picture up for an easier time in handling details and such.  So far definitely loving being able to add multiple layers.

[ZeroTigress]

Layers are love, layers are life.

[schia]

so after checking out the reviews.  I'm leaning towards wacom now.  Mostly because i don't think the added weight of the battery in the pens for the huion models would feel comfortable.

 

Thinking about a wacom CTH480.  A little smaller drawing area than i originally wanted, but factory refurbs are as low as $65.

[ZeroTigress]

The price for this one dropped $50 so now it's about the same price as the small version: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EN27SHY/

Edited by ZeroTigress, 21 November 2015 - 11:49 AM.

[barachan]

so after checking out the reviews.  I'm leaning towards wacom now.  Mostly because i don't think the added weight of the battery in the pens for the huion models would feel comfortable.

 

Thinking about a wacom CTH480.  A little smaller drawing area than i originally wanted, but factory refurbs are as low as $65.

 

yeah a refurb sounds like a good choice!

 

in regards to drawing area, i think the amount necessary depends on how you like to draw + what you plan on doing with the tablet. if you tend to draw from the elbow in large sweeping strokes, then a bigger tablet would be more natural for you to use while sketching/painting, but if you draw from the wrist, a smaller tablet would do the job since you can adjust the canvas size as needed in your software (well, depending on the program -- iirc SAI only lets you go up to 2000x2000px or something) and zoom in/out, etc. if you plan on doing most of your sketching on paper anyway, a small tablet would likely work fine for coloring, unless you use a loose expressive painting style maybe

 

good luckk

[kucingila]

(well, depending on the program -- iirc SAI only lets you go up to 2000x2000px or something)

 

Sai can go 10000x10000px if you set it on the option, otherwise it'll automatically adjust depends on the amount of your memory.

[schia]

yeah a refurb sounds like a good choice!

 

in regards to drawing area, i think the amount necessary depends on how you like to draw + what you plan on doing with the tablet. if you tend to draw from the elbow in large sweeping strokes, then a bigger tablet would be more natural for you to use while sketching/painting, but if you draw from the wrist, a smaller tablet would do the job since you can adjust the canvas size as needed in your software (well, depending on the program -- iirc SAI only lets you go up to 2000x2000px or something) and zoom in/out, etc. if you plan on doing most of your sketching on paper anyway, a small tablet would likely work fine for coloring, unless you use a loose expressive painting style maybe

 

good luckk

 

I'm comfortable with both elbow and wrist strokes but more preference towards wrists so I'm thinking the smaller drawing area should be good enough as a starter.  I think the main focus I want to start off with is using the tablet to clean up sketches first so I can feel comfortable with the tablet.

 

 

Just waiting on monday to arrive for newegg's thanksgiving sales.  So far its just the $65 refurb drawing tablet, which is way under than what I had originally set aside to spend, so maybe i'll splurge for the size upgrade on monday.

[Kitmit]

If you're new to tablets I would definitely recommend trying out Introus Wacom Tablet. It is amazing for beginners, affordable and can you get you enough across the board in terms of digital painting. Though, if you're doing art professionally, it is worth getting Intuos pro (Medium). It offers hotkeys, amazing pen sensitivity, touch,  and many interchangeable nibs for the pen. After that, the next step would be to get the 22HD Cintiq. but that is like end game stuff!

 

Here is a really good link I used myself when I was looking to buy a new tablet: 

http://www.aaronrutt...m/products.html 

he also post some great youtube videos demonstrating how the products work.

 

Overall, I would recommend getting the Introus first to see if you enjoy using a tablet. If you end up liking it, then consider getting a Intro Pro or if money isn't a problem a cintiq. Honestly, the bigger the space the better because to get those nice fluid lines it is required to use shoulder to hand rotations.

 

 

As for programs, I would high recommend using Adobe photoshop. If you're ok with subscriptions, adobe now has a decent affordable subscription plan for it's products.

 

Otherwise, Adobedesk Sketchbook Pro is really fun! It is a light easy to use program and not too expensive compared to photoshop. 
If you're looking for a free program then I would definitely recommend Gimp

 

I hope this info isn't to late and will help you on your quest!

[Havenn]

My first pad was a Wacom and I loved it for sure, it had a great feel, this was 8+ years ago and I don't remember the model. I got the Huion after seeing one a friend had at work and fell in love with the drawing surface size for the price, the pen isn't really heavy though which is strange. My Wacom pen was much heavier and unfortunately broke after about 4 months. 

 

I will definitely say Wacom is the best quality. When I got the Huion I just wanted a tablet to have to mess around with, and it works for that xD